Inexpensive flights to Italy

Yes, but you have missed out one vital fact. Where do you live? Where will you be flying from: Oslo, Johannesburg, Sydney, Buenos Aires, . . . . ?

I did, didn’t I ? Whoops! Flying out of Orlando into Venice. Then Rome to Orlando.

Do you have preferred/specific dates ? I got SFO to Italy for May 2017 by jumping on a KLM/Air France sale the prior year -- we had no plans but when the $600 RT fares showed up, it was too good to miss. Harder to be that flexible when you have to put in for vacation time, coordinate with school schedules, etc.

Unfortunately those are not the best airports to use but dummy up some dates for next year and start watch the fares just to see the changes over time. There is no magic web site for best prices. You might consider flying into Milan and home from Rome. Just put together some combinations and try them.

If you are willing to connect in Oslo on the way over and Copenhagen on the way back, I see that you can fly Norwegian Air for some $500 round trip between Orlando and Rome in autumn 2018 or spring 2019 (cheapest fare; no checked baggage, etc.) For another $100 or so you can check baggage, have a meal, etc. After arriving Rome, it would be about another 4 hours by Freccia train to Venice (fast train; see trenitalia.com.) I've done this; it's worth it to me to save the $200-$300 pp it would have taken to fly into Venice. Norwegian is not fancy flying, but it will (usually) get you there. You may want to do your own research on Norwegian Air, read reviews, and do read ALL the FINE print on the fare you choose. norwegian.com.

Flying into other than the airport near the start point of your holiday, consider all sorts of combinations of alternative airports in Europe and then secondary flights within Europe. Logic and finding good or better airfares are not necessary linked.

Someone posted recently that Air Italy has sale fares for $400 RT from either JFK or Miami through sometime in October, I think. I checked out the website - had never heard of Air Italy. They fly out if Miami several days/week directly to Milan.

Would flights out of Miami be convenient, if yes try Air Italy, you’ve got to dig into it to find good fares, if you have small children, they have special fares for them.
They have also cheap fares from JFK.
You have a one hour stop in Milano Malpensa before having flights to Naples, Rome, Sicily. Volotea has cheap flights into Venice from Sicily and Sardinia.
You can also try Kayak. Within Europe there is also Vueling, Easyjet and Ryanair.
Fast trains from Italo and Trenitalia are also very good.

I use http://matrix.itasoftware.com/ to see what are the cheapest flights available and then play around with the dates and airports to see if I can get something cheaper. That being said, it is too early to be looking for next year's trip.

Last year our tickets were DC to Munich, Paris to DC. We flew a discount airline Munich to Venice and Rome to Paris. You might want to look into the similar idea.

How old are the children? If they're young I would be looking at direct flights only, the increase in cost outweighs the hassle of changing flights, layovers and the risk of luggage going missing in my opinion.

There is no 'best' site to search for flights, your best bet is to book direct with the airline during their sales (most have them several times a year). Find out what airlines fly to venice from Orlando and sign up to their newsletters to be alerted when their sales are on.

This is all great advise. My kids will be 13 and 11 and we plan to go in June. We went out of Miami this year, but Orlando is more convenient. When do you think the best time would be to purchase tickets? Am I really looking too soon? Thanks.

I am flying JFK to Milan non stop in September on Emeriates for under $400. I noticed that they also fly out of Orlando but not sure which destinations they go to from there.

A lot of airlines post prices no more than 300 days in advance. I've seen some discount airlines that are much shorter than that. If you already know what days you will be flying then try to set an alarm in one of the search sites so you can get daily messages of prices. Once you see a price you are comfortable paying jump on it and don't look back. The earlier the purchase the more options you will have.

So Emeriates is out. I found flights from Orlando to Milan for 14k! Ouch. I'm considering Norwegian Airline or Air Italy. Has anyone flown Air Italy? Thanks again.

You might want to try Emirates again, but it's a very specific flight. They have a fare sale that ends today (8/17). JFK to Milan for $799 for 2 people. Certain dates only. If you can get a reasonable fare to JFK from Orlando, you may be able to piece together a good deal. You can take the train from Milan to Venice and from Rome for reasonable cost if you buy in advance.

One key thing -- you said you want to go in JUNE. Note that a number of big-name airlines have been advertising sales recently for October to MAY (usually excluding Christmas holidays) -- big discounts may be harder to find for peak vacation season. My bargain fares in 2017 and 2018 were both in May, purchased around the prior Halloween.